Paul_Koning@Dell.com <Paul_Koning@Dell.com> wrote on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 at 16:12:44 +0000 in <C75A84166056C94F84D238A44AF9F6AD190662@AUSX10MPC102.AMER.DELL.COM>:
The tzdata database is used in embedded systems, not just workstations/servers with lots of memory and disk space. For that usage, it needs to be complete. But having lots of extra references to a given set of zone rules, to satisfy user interface polishing requirements, is a problem for memory-limited systems.
This just doesn't ring true to me. If the amount of space take up by 100 more aliases (much less 37, or 9) is significant, then something is very very wrong.
Could we please move UI improvements out of the TZ project?
There's just not clear concensus that we should. The reality is that, despite what implementors allegedly *should* do, users frequently do encounter tz identifiers. This is manifestly true, otherwise we would not hear so many complaints about it. Personally, I suppose I'm a baroque elitist because I try to answer questions like, "What time is it in Hong Kong?" by typing $ TZ=Asia/Hong_Kong date Thu Aug 16 00:20:34 HKT 2012 Because I don't have some superior tool that answers the question for me. And it seems like no amount of zone.tab improvements or installation-time picker improvements are going to improve that situation for me. As I wrote offline to Paul, it seems clear to me that the amount of time wasted in the past decade by repeating this conversation on the list grossly outweights the time to actually make the change. We should make the change, adjust our rules, and carry onward. And if it turns out to be a bad idea, well, we can change our minds again. At least we'll have dealt with the most populous cases so they won't keep coming up again. Digging in our heels just isn't making anyone happy. --jhawk@mit.edu John Hawkinson